Podcast promotion should be approached with the same tactics as website promotion. Identifying and informing your audience will increase communication and dialogue.

1. Educate the Public

It is important to remember that podcasting is a relatively new technology and not everyone understands or knows what podcasting is. It is particularly important to educate users if your audience is not technical. Not only is it important to explain what a podcast is, but it is equally important to explain how your podcast will help listeners. Instruction on how users can listen to podcasts should also be included.

Understanding Podcasting: http://www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-articles.htm

2.  Add Graphics

Add a graphic to your website to let website visitors know that a podcast is available for your content. Colorful graphics have become the signature to alert listeners that podcasts and RSS feeds are available. The podcast flags were initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit.

A free online RSS graphic tool is available that allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text and the color scheme of the button enabling webmasters to coordinate their podcast flag to match their website color scheme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative colors and insert text to personalize the feed graphics.

Online Graphics Tools: http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or choose ready made graphics fom: http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-graphics.htm.

3. Descriptive Content

Be sure the podcast RSS feed contains enough information related to the contents of the podcasts to grab the interest of listeners. The description should be keyword rich. A link to the audio file should be included in the description field. The audio file link is a great way for listeners to sample a podcast.

4. Press Release

Send a press release about the podcast. In addition to distributing the press release to editors, be sure to submit the release to free online press release directories.

Submit Press Release: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/pressreleases.html (scroll to submit release)

5. Podcast Directories

Submit podcasts to the podcast directories. Podcast directories contain podcasts that cover a wide variety of topics. Inclusion in the podcast search engines and directories will tap a whole new audience.

Submit to Podcasting Directories – http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm

6. Consistent Theme / Interesting Content

The last thing you want to do is to turn off listeners who have subscribed. Provide consistently formatted and consistently themed audio files. Interesting content that is consistently presented will gradually increase your listening base.

7. Create a Community

Encourage feedback and dialogue with listeners. Listen to the feedback of listeners and test their suggestions. Remember the podcast is for them not you.

About the author:  Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition, Sharon manages marketing for NotePage a wireless text messaging software company.

Courtesy: ArticlesOn

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This is a great time to stay competitive and set up podcasts of your own so that you too can capture some fans of your own. To start things off, you will need a podcasting software or service that can let you create podcasts quickly and transfer them easily to the server. There are different kinds of podcasting software that vary in features.

Although choosing the software that you are most comfortable in using could be the best choice, it is important to know how each podcasting software weighs in with their pros and cons.

FeedForAll

FeedForAll is a decent program that supports one of the crucial elements in creating podcasts – RSS feeds. RSS is now being supported in all the latest Internet browsers and mobile devices. The sole purpose of RSS support is to allow regular Internet users to have syndicated content of the sites of their choosing and give them the quickest access when updates are made. If your podcasts are created with RSS support, you can easily distribute your podcast RSS link and have them add it to their browser for easier distribution and updating.

However, FeedForAll has no built-in audio recorder and editor requiring you to purchase 3rd party software for podcast production.

Podcast Studio

Podcast Studio is a strong contender because it has it all complete with the RSS feed support, an audio recorder with support for audio signal mixing, an audio editor which can be used to make some quick fixes and enhancements to new recordings, and even a built-in FTP client for uploading the podcasts to your designated server. The interface is well done and even has a trial version available for people having second thoughts in buying. The price is a bit much compared to other podcasting software, but all the programs included make it worth the purchase.

Magix Podcast MAKER

Magix podcast MAKER emphasizes on turning your computer into a radio station. This is the perfect choice for people who want to record their voice and have some music playing in the background. It has plenty of advanced audio options allowing users to tweak things such as the audio speed and even adding some cool audio effects too. It is fairly cheap and should be a perfect companion for making radio-style podcasts. However, it lacks an FTP client, but has a great submission tool for putting the new podcast link in a number of podcast directories.

The best way to choose which podcasting software is best for you is by downloading multiple programs and trying each one directly. Weigh them all in and see what podcasting solution is worth your money. If you find all of them too difficult to use, try to join some forums and ask around on what their favorite podcasting software is. Once you get the hang of things, you should be able to produce podcasts on a routine basis.

About the author: Andrew Green is part of the team behind A-Z Proxies, an attempt to list from A to Z every active web proxy. Andy has been actively working in the web proxy field since 2005 and has built up a wealth of knowledge on the subject.

Courtesy: EzineArticles
photo credit: Dale Gillard

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